Finding My Voice

Well, yesterday I finally found my "voice" in Second Life First Look. My friends have been using their real-live voices for about a week in Second Life. I could get my audio to work, but could not get my microphone to work so that others could hear my voice.

I followed the suggestions of friends who were successful in using their real voice, but nothing was working for me. I was beginning to feel like a "muted" student, and I have had a few of those in my class when I was teaching in public schools.

It was so nice to hear the voices of my friends in Second Life and they were wanting to hear my voice. Some were wondering if I had a Texas accent to go with my name. I kept fiddling with my equipment and even bought a headset especially made for Yahoo Instant Messenger.

The voice was still not working, so yesterday I took my regular microphone and my headset down to my local technician. He was able run a test on the computer at his shop and found that both my regular microphone and the one in the headset did work. That was encouraging.

Then he came to my house and checked them out there. We had to get a flashlight to be sure that the microphone plug was in the right port at the back. I think I had just been guessing...I tried several ports...and was not sure which one was right. He showed me the microphone sign above the correct port. Then he also tried plugging in the headset into the two small ports in the front of my Dell.

He did a test on the microphones to see if they would work on my computer. At first it looked like the headset microphone was not going to work, so he unplugged the cords a couple of times...and finally it worked.

So I paid my technician $20 to get my voice working and I felt that it was worth it. I kept thinking, "I want to get this fixed before the classes are over...and there is just three more Mondays left in the summer semester."

Now, I am happy to be able to speak to my friends and classmates in Second Life and it is good to finally have a real live "voice."

Computer Technology, a fickle lady

Computer Technology can be so wonderful when it works as it should, but it can be like a fickle lady sometimes, too. Just when I think I can count on my computer do do things for me, there is a glitch. Then there has to be a lot of thinking and problem-solving to fix the problem.

Today I am finally able to get into Blogger to create another blog...I have been trying for an hour or more. I count on my computer to help me remember the username and password. Most of the time Blogger will just skip over the sign-in process and go right to the account. But today it knew nothing to help me, so I tried to find my Second Life Computer Log book to see if I had written those magic words and numbers there. I could not find them. I was getting so flustrated, so I took a break and walked with my dog and had lunch. Then I went through the process again and finally had to go into "Edit" personal information to finally access the Blog to make an entry.

Earlier this morning I tried to log on to Second Life and found that it was not working today. I tried going in on the older version without First Voice and found that it was not working either, so I went to secondlife.com to check out the grid status. It showed that it was not working this morning.

While I was there I started looking at some pictures in flickr that had been taken in Second Life and they were pretty interesting. There were also some good tips for taking pictures. One that impressed me was the idea of going into the "Client" tab . (First you have to access that tab by holding down Control + Alt+D.) Then you can go to Client > Character > Slow Motion Animations to slow down an action shot to half-speed. It just plays it in SloMo locally for the user to see, and not in-world for others to see.

This seemed like one of the good things that comes from a less-than-desirable situation of not being able to log on to blog. And I wrote all my vital statistics down in my notebook, so the next time it asks for a username and password, I will have it handy.

I guess we will just wait and see if Second Life is up and going by Sunday evening at 7:00p.m. CST when our group is supposed to meet to discuss our pictures for the news article for the current assignment.

Photojournalism Group Project

This week we are try photojournalism, and we are to do some group work with other classmates to collect photographs that would illustrate an article such as would be in a newspaper or a magazine.

Our group is rather scattered with two living in the Abilene area, one about fifty miles east and another member many miles further to the east. We realized that it would be difficult to cover a local news story, so we looked for stories on-line.

Also, we did not know everyone on the group. I had met two of the four members, but did not know them very well....and we just had a week to get the project together.....so there was not a lot of time to see what the common interests would be.

We started thinking about food and sports and came up with an article that seems to address the issues of how diet drinks can affect health issues. Our challenge to each other is to see if we can come up with three photograph each, take them to the digital darkroom of Photoshop for processing, and to make captions for each of the three pictures.

We had planned to have our first meeting in Second Life on Tuesday at 7 p.m., but the system was down, much to our dismay. We were able to communicate on the thread for our group that our teacher had started, and we used some e-mail on the webCT to set up another time. We decided to try to meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night. Three of us were able to meet and to come up with a plan of action. We also designated a leader, who took charge and helped us to get organized.

We decided that we would all try to have our three pictures ready by next Sunday evening. We plan to post our three pictures to the webCT by 6 p.m. Sunday so that we will have time to look them over before our meeting in Second Sife at 7 p.m. on Sunday night. At that time we will choose the ones from each member to submit to illustrate the article for the assignment.

I will admit that this task seemed a bit daunting at first, since the committee members were so scattered, we did not know what would interest each other, and to find a subject that all of us could cover in the short amout of time given. Fortunately, we were able to get the ball rolling and it seems like a "do-able" task now.

Now, we just have to get out there and take several photos so that we can process at least three of them, and to caption caption them by Sunday night.

What? Distress the Picture?

Yesterday evening we had our regular class session at the virtual campus of T.S.T.C. with our teacher Mr. Brown. And much to my surprise, he was showing us how to use Photoshop to make our photos look distressed....scratched and torn with a coffee stain. Wow.....

I had worked all weekend trying to get some beautiful pictures of some antique cars and some forgotten things. I had already chosen the ones to submit and had turned some of them into the sepia tone to look older.

Then I heard lesson about how to distress a picture and make it look grungy...I was thinking....how ironic....in our photo restoration class....we took old scratched, torn, and stained photos to make them look whole again....

I was surprised that people would actually WANT to make a picture looked scratched and torn. Anyway, there were some files of some scratch brushes and some torn paper that our teacher mentioned that we should upload to our Photoshop files. He said that we should also use the coffee stain...
I think I was able to upload all the scratch brushes...he said that we could enlarge them to cover the whole picture. He also said that we should vary our scratches and stain...and torn paper look so that no two pictures would look the same. Then they would look like they were manufactured....variation of destruction is the key.

He also said that we should try maybe a couple of our pictures with this technique. So I guess I will do that...It all seems like a waste of a perfectly good picture though....

I guess it is because I remember that in the 50's and 60's we all tried to be so prim and perfect...with our shirt-tails tucked in....Oh wait....there was Elvis....and he broke the rules....maybe that is what all of this is about....just breaking out of the beautiful perfection, and going for the grungy look of some of the younger set....

Well, it is all very interesting....and I guess we will see who can get the most grungy photos this week.....I double dog dare anybody to get grungier than mine are gonna be....lol...at least I will try....

Visitors

I enjoy going to art shows and photography exhibits in Second Life. I have joined several art and photography groups, so I get notices just about every day. I usually visit two or three each day. Many times I am able to strike up a conversation with someone who is visiting the exhibit, or many times it is the artist or photographer having that exhibit, and if they seem interested, I invite to see my work some time.

There have been several who have come to see my photography exhibits at Sheba and other places. I always invite them to make comments. I have learned a great deal from their expertise. I am trying to learn not to be so thin-skinned when the critique seems to be a little tough. Many times they question me about how I achieved certain looks, and some have said that they wished they could achieve that certain look. Of course comments like that make me feel good.

Then there may be times that the more expert photographer will say what he or she thinks would make the picture better. Perhaps a little more saturation, some burning around the edges, or more contrast.

There have been several people from Sheba Island who have visited. Some of them came to my larger "grand opening of Sheba" exhibit which lasted about three weeks. Many times I invite them over to see the T.S.T.C. student photo exhibit, and they are always amazed at the beautiful campus.

This last Friday I was in the Student Gallery above our classrooom, which is supposed to be a private area. I was a little surprised to notice on my on-screen radar that someone else was on the island. It was not anyone I had remembered seeing there before. (By the way, my friend Lowri Mills gave me the SL perfect HUD, which lists the avatars that are in the area....up to about 90 meters, I believe. This has really helped to know who is behind me, or in the area.)

Anyway, I had just started to do the critiques when I noticed this unfamiliar name. I noticed according to the numbers that the avatar was coming closer. Finally, he was near me and I turned around and introduced myself when he said, "Hello." He introduced himself as someone on the administrative staff from T.S.T.C. in Waco. He said he had not seen the student photography exhibit yet. It had been a while since he had visited the area, he said.

He looked at the exhibits and was interested to see my work, so I showed him my phography for Unit 1. He thought that the Gaylord Texan must be a beautiful place and wanted to take his wife there sometime. He said that he especially liked my photo of the shadow of the lamp on the "pavers," or tiles. That was a little surprising to me, because I thought it was such a simple subject, just the shadow on the tiles. I guess I thought some of the more complicated compositions were better, but I am learning that simiplicity can be compelling.

He also said that T.S.T.C. in Waco has some nice equipment for people wanting to develop games. I understood him to say that Conoco had donated a super
computer that could control other computers, so that rendering of scenes can be done quickly. He also said that they have some Motion Capture (MoCap) equipment, and that was really fascinating to me. He said that the course is being offered this summer, so it might possibly be offered in summers to come.

Anyway, it was a very interesting visit with a V.I.P. from T.S.T.C. in Waco and I was just amazed that he would be that interested to spend a few minutes talking to a student about photograpy. It was very encouraging. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time...to receive a word of encouragement.

Looking for Antiques

This week our assignment is to look for old signs and antique things. I have been at the University of North Texas this week for a play therapy conference, so I have been looking around Denton to find some subjects for the assignment.

On two afternoons I drove around town and was able to find a few things. There was a well preserved bank sign on one of the buildings down town. I found a few antique things that were used for decorations in some yards. I also found an old Gulf sign and an old Ford truck.

Then today I was able to go to the Lela Latch Lloyd Museum here in town to find some antique things. I made several shots there. Then I came home to download and recharge my camera while I had lunch. Afterwards I went to a location which has several antique cars lined up by the road. It was fascinating to see how the old cars were made...and to think about the passengers that may have ridden in the vehicles. Now the only passengers are weeds and a few bugs flying around inside the cars.

I will be looking at the photos more later this evening to decide which ones to submit for the assignment. I have really enjoyed getting out and looking for the "forgotten things."

Challenged to Focus

I am being challenged this summer to keep my focus on my school work. There have been so many real life emergencies coming up just about every week. Some have concerned my elderly mother, while others concerned my counseling practice and art studio. There have been many trips to the doctor and rehab for my mother, attestation for my counseling practice, and getting the roof fixed on my art studio that was damaged in a recent storm. Lots of challenges....but I did take time to go to an International music conference at the Gaylord Texan at Grapevine last week, and it was a much-needed respite.

It was a lot of fun to try to find all nine examples for our photo assignment this last week at the Gaylord Texan. I was able to do the Rule of Thirds, Unusual Angles, Lines, Avoiding Mergers, Interesting Shadows, Getting close, Framing, Avoiding Cluttered Backgrounds, and Interesting Reflections. Most of these ideas come fairly naturally to me since we studied most of them last summer in our photography class.

The two that I found most challenging and interesting this time were the reflections and the shadows. I think that having to do this assignment has helped me to see some beautiful things that I probably would have missed. I really looked at shadows, and found many fascinating ones. There were also some reflections, some showing up better in a photograph than others did.

It was a wonderful week at the Gaylord Texan resort. I highly recommend it as a place to take photographs. Even if one were were to just go for part of a day to look around and to enjoy the beauty of the tropical plants under an air conditioned dome. And how refreshing it is just to breathe in the the plant- oxygenated air, and listen to the soothing sound of the many waterfalls.

The pure delight was in taking the photographs with my little camera. I even tried getting some shots of the fireworks over Lake Grapevine on the Fourth of July. Now my challenge is to process the photographs this afternoon and to get them ready for submission of my assignment that is due today.